Chocolate Thoughts
The act of gift-giving in and of itself is personal, and so should your gift be. Add the perfect touch to your gift! Make them personalized.
I, personally, love being on the receiving end. Who doesn’t, right? Right? Let’s not kid ourselves. And I appreciate it even more when it’s obvious that the gift is for me and me only! What better way to know that the gift is especially for you than seeing your name written all over it?
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The Love Of Milk Chocolate
It’s a common knowledge that some of the most loved chocolate treats are made by the Swiss. Around 1876, a candy maker named Daniel Peter of Vevey, Switzerland, was the one who “invented” milk chocolate. He had a hard time removing the water from the milk at first, since it always caused mildewing.
Thereafter, he thought of collaborating with Henry Nestle, a maker of condensed milk. They then came up with the idea of putting in condensed milk to chocolate liquor which is a nonalcoholic smooth, thick, and liquid form of chocolate. It is the ground or melted form of the cocoa nib which the purest state of chocolate. Milk chocolate became popular and a darling to many by the 1900’s, and it never ceased.
There are several forms of milk chocolate, hot cocoa can be one, and boy is it almost every chocoholic’s favorite drink! It is a cocoa powder mixed with milk and sugar and heated until hot and smooth. This popular beverage just gives you the warmth and comfort that you are rooting for. Also included in the list are liquid milk products, powdered milk products, granule and of course, chocolate bars. One can enjoy them hot or cold, hard or soft, pretty much any way you wish.
Chocolate has everyone enticed and allured for different reasons and it’s not gonna die down, at least not anytime soon. It is so special to consumers that it has become 2011’s number 1 specialty food, so to speak. And milk chocolate is the darling of the crowd when it comes to chocolate preferences as it is preferred by approximately 80% of the consumers.
If you’re creating a chocolate basket as a gift without knowing the personal preferences of the one you’re planning on giving it to, you can never go wrong if it is filled with milk chocolate treats!
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Categories: chocolate articles Tags: cocoa, milk chocolate, popular, powdered
Chocolate Diet
Chocolate has always been contradictory to weight loss. However, new trends in dieting include chocolate, but it’s not what you think. You can’t just eat any kind of chocolate you put your hands on.
Basically, there are three types of chocolate, namely dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. The dark variant is considered as the healthiest type as it has the highest cocoa content. Cocoa is known for its antioxidants which provide tons of nutritional benefits.
Antioxidants play a big part in protecting the cells from damage, and new studies even show that it prevents certain diseases, particularly ones that affect the heart. They are also known to help fight the damaging effects of free radicals. So yes, cocoa, because of its antioxidant effects, can be a healthy addition to a weight loss plan.
Some diets require you to get rid of sweets altogether, but that abrupt change can lead to a dieting downfall. Most women crave chocolates but want to go on diets, so they deprive themselves of their cravings, which usually makes them break down and end up with unsuccessful diet plans.
While on a chocolate diet, make sure you consume other low-calorie but filling foods. Eat a lot of vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, among many others, as they contain minimum amount of calories. They have very high fiber contents which can help you feel full for longer periods of time. Not only that, they also aid in proper digestion. If you exercise a lot or have an active lifestyle, you may need additional calories. But never ever go on crash diets! Ever.
Keep your body hydrated at all times. Drink water all throughout the day. There are diets that require you to eliminate coffee from your diet as it induces cravings. However, there are people who just can’t live without caffeine in their systems. Just be moderate in your consumption.
Being on a chocolate diet still entails healthy eating and drinking plenty of water, just like any healthy diet programs. You don’t just get to be at your ideal weight, you also get to satisfy your sweet tooth cravings.
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Categories: chocolate articles Tags: chocolate diet, cocoa, dark chocolate, healthy, help, milk chocolate, White Chocolate
Chocolate Fitness
Regular ingestion of chocolate has been recently associated with healthy weight, according to a study involving 1,000 adults done at the University of California at San Diego.
Dr. Beatrice Golomb, who led the research which is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, said: “People have just assumed that because it comes with calories and it’s typically eaten as a sweet… it would inherently have been one way: bad,”
This particular study involved 1,000 mostly middle-aged adults who had their dose of exercise thrice a week and had their dose of chocolate twice every week. Those who had more chocolate usually had lower body mass indexes.
It’s no surprise that chocolate makers will lay out the benefits of chocolate, and so will fitness trainers. Many personal trainers are now linking chocolate to fitness, especially when you eat it after a strenuous workout or right after exercising.
Blake Raun, a trainer at Lifetime Fitness in Chicago, said: “Chocolate can increase one’s resting metabolic rate,” He added: “Having a higher resting metabolic rate means better metabolism and the more calories one can burn.”
The resting metabolic rate (RMR) refers to the minimum amount of calories that the body requires in backing up the basic physiological functions. Nevertheless, fitness trainers are not suggesting chocolate to be a separate supplement to their client, but they know that chocolate really packs a lot of benefits in exercise performance.
Golomb also acknowledged the benefits of chocolate in fitness. She also mentioned how chocolate milk is so popular as a sports drink during and after a strenuous workout in this time and age. She cited the results from the research that involved lab rats.
She said: “Chocolate essentially acted as an exercise magnet, allowing rats to run farther and increase muscle mass,” She also said that the research involving rats have indicated that these animals had a noticeable increase in their endurance, thus giving a reason to anticipate this pattern in humans.
The next time you want to hit the gym, you might want to have some chocolate with you. You can share it with your gym buddies, as well!
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: chocolate studies, exercise, fitness, milk chocolate, research, week
Vegan Chocolate: The Impossible?
Vegan chocolate: it might seem like the impossible dream. Can you avoid eating all animal products but still enjoy the delicious taste – and the health benefits – of chocolate? I know at least one friend (a vegetarian who avoids dairy products, which means that vegan chocolate would be appropriate for her) who would love to find this product, and I guess that you probably know a person like this too – maybe it’s you. Is vegan chocolate possible? Or are vegans permanently condemned to carob substitutes while others enjoy the pleasures of chocolate?
It’s easier than you think to make and find vegan chocolate. You have to remember that although we’re used to seeing and tasting chocolate that has had milk or dairy products added to it, chocolate does not come from a cow (or even a goat). Chocolate is made from substances derived from the seed of the Theobroma cacao tree, known as the cocoa bean. The primary ingredients that go into chocolate – cocoa solids and cocoa butter – both come from a plant source, which is good news for vegans. Most vegan chocolate is dark chocolate: the type of chocolate with 70% plus cocoa solids. This is because vegan chocolate is usually dark chocolate, and it’s only the light coloured (milk chocolate and white chocolate) varieties that have to contain milk. Looking at the label of a 72% cocoa solids block of dark chocolate, the ingredient list contains cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar, soya lecithin and vanilla.. Each of these ingredients passes the vegan test – they’re all from plants – this is vegan chocolate, all right. Most dark (70% plus cocoa solids) chocolate is likely to be vegan chocolate, but read the label if you want to make certain.
The health community has become quite excited about vegan chocolate (a.k.a. dark chocolate) because it is rich in antioxidants, and also contains a large number of trace elements, some of which are hard to find in other dietary sources, especially selenium. While nobody should make a pig of themselves with any sort of chocolate, vegan or otherwise, eating 50 g of dark chocolate a day has a number of health benefits: lowering stress, boosting the immune system and supplying the body with good nutrients. Anecdotal evidence also hints that eating small amounts of dark chocolate can help you lose weight, as dark chocolate has a high “satiety index”, meaning that eating a little of it makes you feel full and satisfied, so you don’t go and eat large quantities of other food.
It’s also possible to find fair trade vegan chocolate and organic vegan chocolate.
You can also enjoy using chocolate in other vegan foods, including baking, by using ordinary cocoa powder. A very easy recipe for vegan chocolate cake that is so simple that children can cook it is given below:
1 ½ cups flour.
1 cup sugar.
1 t baking soda.
¼ t salt.
3 T cocoa powder.
6 T vegetable oil (not olive oil – the flavour is too strong).
1 T vinegar.
1 t vanilla.
1 cup water.
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Scoop three holes in the mixture, one large and two small. Fill the largest hole with the oil, and put the vinegar and vanilla separately into the other two holes. Pour in the water over the entire mixture and stir well to make a smooth batter. Place into a greased cake tin and bake at 170°C for 30-40 minutes. For variation, cinnamon and/or sultanas can be added to the dry ingredients.
To find delicous vegan chocolate treats and gifts or to ask more about vegan chocolate, visit Luna Mare Vegan Chocolate. (Click now to get SEO for real readers, not robots, using Semantic Writing by Rick Rakauskas)
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: antioxidants, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, SEO
Chocolate – It’s Good For You!
Oh, chocolate! Milk Chocolate, dark chocolate, chocolate truffles. Or chocolate donuts, candy, or cereal. Chocolate drinks and chocolate ice cream. It’s all so good, and it’s everywhere. You’d be hard pressed to go through a day and not see something boasting the flavor of chocolate. It might be in your home, at your office, certainly at the grocery store, and often on TV commercials. And, yet, even though it’s everywhere, some people avoid chocolate all together. What are they thinking?
Yep, some people think chocolate is bad for them. The facts don’t support this thought though. There is a lot of supporting research to suggest that chocolate is actually quite good for your health. For one thing it’s loaded with antioxidants. Sure you might want to watch out for the extra fat and sugar that often comes with this deliciousness. That can be a concern. But overall, chocolate can be part of a rather well-balanced, healthful diet.
Just remember, everything in moderation!
Categories: chocolate articles, chocolate nutrition Tags: antioxidants, chocolate candy, dark chocolate, milk chocolate
